State requests 45 years for rape alone

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WINDHOEK – State Advocate Ethel Ndlovu yesterday morning asked Windhoek High Court Judge Nate Ndauendapo to remove Jesaja Boois from society for a very long time as he is clearly a danger who cannot be let loose on innocent members of society.

In fact, she said, he demonstrated this by raping and killing another innocent woman after he was convicted and sentenced for the very crimes. Ndlovu asked the Court to sentence Boois to 45 years in jail for the rape count, 25 years in jail for the murder count and two years for defeating justice count and six months for the assault by threat count. She conceded that the sentences asked for will be in excess of the allowable sentences determined in the recent Supreme Court judgment that said sentences in excess of the 25-year maximum of life terms as per the constitution is “inhumane.”

For this reason, Ndlovu said the sentences can be ordered to run concurrently, but Boois should serve the full maximum under the law.

Boois, 43, was convicted by Judge Ndauendapo in July for the rape and murder of Bonaventura Jahs in Tses during the period September 2 to September 3, 2014. He was further convicted of assault by threat for threatening to stab his ex-girlfriend Anna Marie Links with a wine bottle on Tuesday September 2, 2014, but was acquitted on a charge of attempted murder for allegedly attacking Lesley Tiboth in the holding cells at the Tses Police Station by pushing him and slapping him in the face as well as hitting him with broomstick on the head and stabbing him on the head with a broken piece of the broomstick.

He was also convicted on a charge of defeating or obstructing or attempting to defeat or obstruct the course of justice by cleaning up the ground around the deceased’s body, dressing the deceased’s body with a purple legging and hiding the deceased’s dress/blouse in a culvert pipe as well as hiding the deceased’s cellphone and sim card by burying it in the ground.

In mitigation, Boois claimed he has found religion in custody, said he wants to ask for forgiveness from the deceased’s family and the community of Tses as well as the Namibian nation, but he knows they would not forgive him. “I regret what I have done, I will just ask forgiveness from the relatives of the deceased and I know even if I ask forgiveness from the community , I don’t believe they will, so I’m just asking in the name of the Lord for their forgiveness,” he told the Court.

However, the mother of the deceased, Aletha Jahs told the Court she has forgiven Boois as it is the Christian thing to do, but she wants him sent to prison for life to protect not only the community, but him as well. Shedding tears during her testimony, the distraught mother said that the deceased was her only child and the one who supported her and now eleven year old son. “She was the one that kept the fire burning and the accused was the one who poured that fire with cold water,” she said while wiping the tears from her face. According to Aletha, the deceased was a lovely person who was a friend to especially the elderly in their community.

Titus Mbaeva, the State funded lawyer of Boois conceded that 45 years for the rape conviction is fair since Boois already has a previous rape conviction, but asked that the sentences on all the other convictions be ordered to run concurrently with the rape sentence. The judge indicated that he will deliver the sentence on September 18 at 14H15.

Boois remains in custody at the section for trial awaiting inmates at the Windhoek Correctional Facility.